My Foray into My Midwestern Roots

Not Just Horsin’ Around

The topic for the 78th Carnival of Genealogy is: Pony Pictures. I spent a lot of time watching the other neighborhood kids get their pictures taken on ponies instead of having mine taken. I remember each summer a man would come walking through the neighborhood with the animal and coming on up the driveway wherever he saw kids playing. One of my friends had three siblings so to save money, the parents put 2 kids at a time on the pony. Running home, I found my parents working in the yard. Breathless, I exclaimed that I wanted my picture taken on a pony. When it was pointed out that it costs money for the picture, my hopes were dashed. We just didn’t spend money on useless things. Besides, what I really wanted to do was to ride on it – not just sit there.

I was 17 when I actually got to ride my first horse. I went with my sister’s family to a relative’s (on her husband’s side) country house in Paris, Texas. She had several horses and some ponies. The first time I got on the pony, it promptly ran at a lower limb and knocked me off. Fall off – get back on. After riding around for awhile on that animal, I got up the nerve to try to ride a horse. Wow – it was harder than it looked! I sure didn’t get my riding skills from ancestors who had rode horses before me.

My maternal great-grandfather, John “Lafe” Johnson, had horses. I don’t have a picture of him riding them. (*UPDATED 8/13) *He also had several work mules. The photograph below is one with him and 2 of the mules. (This large picture hangs on my hallway wall.)

Gr-Grandpa Johnson with 2 large mules

My grandmother’s Uncle Dan (Stern) had horses – he used them to pull the wagon.

When my kids were young, we took them to Scarborough Faire Rennaisance Festival in Waxahachie, Tex. There were elephant and camel rides so the oldest three got to ride VERY LARGE animals! No horses for them – that would just be kid stuff compared to a camel & elephant!

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4 Responses

That is a wonderful picture of your Great Grandpa but those are not horses.They are mules,big beautiful work mules.Made much better work animals,especially were it was hot.Thanks for sharing your memory’s and the great picture!

I also had questions about the large drawings. Someone on my PA Allegheny County Roots Web list said that about the time they were done there was no way available to do photographic enlargements. So many time the drawings would be done from a small picture.

I have two drawings of my own. Took me a few weeks to figure that one out.